There is some life-power from which we derive our capacities and our intelligence. It is hidden and intangible. No one has seen it but everyone who thinks deeply enough can sense that it is there, always present and always supporting us. It is the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27643 – 14.22.3.175

B_01 – ZZZ – DK

Ernest Wood’s Yoga Dictionary defines “Overself” as follows: “A term designed by Dr. P. Brunton to indicate that the holy fount of our being and root of our consciousness is still ourselves, is indeed our true self. The Sanskrit equivalent is adhyatma as in Bhagavad Gita, Chapter VII and VIII.” To Dr. Wood’s learned definition I would like to add Kutastha, what stands above or beyond illusion, and also the Gita’s picture of the higher element in man controlling the lesser self. Further I would not leave out Buddha’s transcendent atmosphere of goodwill to all beings.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27645 – 14.22.3.177

BN – X – D

It is this grandeur of self that is the magnetic pole drawing us to the Good, the Beautiful, the Just, the True, and the Noble. Yet itself is above all these attributes for it is the Attributeless, the Ineffable, and Infinite that human thought cannot grasp.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27646 – 14.22.3.178

BN – X – D

Both the inward and outward lives of every man are controlled by a concealed entity—the Overself. Could he but see aright, he would see that everything witnesses to its presence and activity.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27647 – 14.22.3.179

BA11 – ZZ – DK

He will feel that this nobler self actually overshadows him at times. This is literally true. Hence we have named it the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27648 – 14.22.3.180

BN – Z – D

When man shall discover the hidden power within himself which enables him to be conscious and to think, he will discover the holy spirit, the ray of Infinite Mind lighting his little finite mind.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27649 – 14.22.3.181

BN – X – DK1

This is the abiding essence of a man, his true self as against his ephemeral person. Whoever enters into its consciousness enters into timelessness, a wonderful experience where the flux of pleasures and pains comes to an end in utter serenity, where regrets for the past, impatience at the present, and fears of the future are unknown.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27651 – 14.22.3.183

BN – ZZ – D

Nothing could be nearer to a man than the Overself for it is the source of his life, mind, and feeling. Nothing could be farther from him, nevertheless, for it eludes all his familiar instruments of experience and awareness.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27652 – 14.22.3.184

BN – X – D

Without the Overself no human creature could be what it is—conscious, living, and intelligent.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27653 – 14.22.3.185

BN – X – D

Although awareness is the first way in which we can regard the soul or Overself, the latter is also that which makes awareness possible and hence a sub- or super-conscious thing. This explains why it is that we do not know our souls, but only our thoughts, our feelings, and our bodies. It is because we are the soul and hence we are the knower as well as the act of knowing. The eyes see everything outside yet do not see themselves.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27654 – 14.22.3.186

BN – X – DEK

The Overself is certainly the Way (within man), the Truth (knowing the Real Being), and the Life (applying this knowledge and practising this way in the midst of ordinary everyday activity).

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27655 – 14.22.3.187

BN – Z – D

We cannot accurately and strictly define the Overself. It is really indescribable, but its effects are not. The feeling of the Overself's presence and the way to awaken it may both be described for the benefit of those who have neither experienced the one nor learned the other.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27656 – 14.22.3.188

BN – Z – D

We can know the Overself only by 'being' it, not by thinking it. It is beyond thoughts for it is Thought, Pure Mind, itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27659 – 14.22.3.191

BSG_4 – P – D

From the ordinary human point of view the Overself is the Ever-Still: yet that is our own conceptualization of it, for the fact is that all the universe’s tremendous activity is induced by its presence.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27660 – 14.22.3.192

BN – X – D

That out of which we draw our life and intelligence is unique and indestructible, beginningless and infinite.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27661 – 14.22.3.193

BN – X – D

It is not only the hidden and mysterious source of their own little self but also the unrecognized source of the only moments of real happiness that they ever have.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27663 – 14.22.3.195

BN – Z – D

What does the coming of Overself consciousness mean to man? It means, first of all, an undivided mind.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27666 – 14.22.3.198

BN – X – D

Listen to the Roman Stoics' definition of the Overself: "the divinity which is planted in his breast" of Marcus Aurelius; "your guardian spirit" of Epictetus.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27667 – 14.22.3.199

BN – Z – D

At the centre of every man's being there is his imperishable soul, his guardian angel.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27669 – 14.22.3.201

BN – Z – D

The Overself is not merely a mental concept for all men but also a driving force for some men, not merely a pious pleasant feeling for those who believe in it but also a continuing vital experience for those who have lifted the ego's heavy door-bar.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27670 – 14.22.3.202

BN – Z – DK1

No one can explain what the Overself is, for it is the origin, the mysterious source, of the explaining mind, and beyond all its capacities. But what can be explained are the effects of standing consciously in its presence, the conditions under which it manifests, the ways in which it appears in human life and experience, the paths which lead to its realization.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27671 – 14.22.3.203

BN – Z – DK1

It is a state of pure intelligence but without the working of the intellectual and ideational process. Its product may be named intuition. There are no automatically conceived ideas present in it, no habitually followed ways of thinking. It is pure, clear, stillness.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27672 – 14.22.3.204

BN – ZZ – K1

Let no one imagine that contact with the Overself is a kind of dreamy reverie or pleasant, fanciful state. It is a vital relationship with a current of peace, power, and goodwill flowing endlessly from the invisible centre to the visible self.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27674 – 14.22.3.206

BN – Z – DK1

Although it is true that the Overself is the real guardian angel of every human being, we should not be so foolish as to suppose its immediate intervention in every trivial affair. On the contrary, its care is general rather than particular, in the determination of long-term phases rather than day-by-day events. Its intervention, if that does occur, will be occasioned by or will precipitate a crisis.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27675 – 14.22.3.207

BN – ZZ – DK1

It is that part of man which is fundamental, real, undying, and truly 'knowing'.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27677 – 14.22.3.209

BN – Z – K1

Knowledge of law, language, or history can be collected and becomes a possession but knowledge of the Overself is not at all the same. It is something one must be: it owns us, we do not have it.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27680 – 14.22.3.212

BN – Z – D

Stillness is both a sign that sense and thought, body and intellect, have been transcended and a symbol of the consciousness of the presence of the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27681 – 14.22.3.213

BN – X – D

Just as the eye cannot see itself as a second thing apart, so the Overself (which you are) cannot objectify itself, cannot become an object to be looked at or thought about. For in that case you would be dealing with a pretender, while all your thinking could in the end only deliver another thought, not the reality itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27684 – 14.22.3.216

BN – Z – DEK

This is its mystery, that seeing all, it is itself seen by none.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27686 – 14.22.3.218

BN – Z – DK

Whatever men may say about it will not be enough to describe it properly, justly, accurately. All such efforts will be clumsy but they will not be useless. They will be suggestive, offer clues perhaps, each in its own way. 

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27687 – 14.22.3.219

UR_3.2 – ZZ – K

What is its consciousness like? If we use our ordinary faculties only, we may ponder this problem for a lifetime without discerning its solution for it is evident that we enter a realm where the very questioner himself must disappear as soon as he crosses the frontier. The personal "I" must be like a mere wave in such an ocean, a finite centre in incomprehensible infinitude. It would be impossible to realize what mind-in-itself is so long as we narrow down the focus of attention to the personal "I"-thought. For it would be like a wave vainly trying to collect and cram the whole ocean within itself, while refusing to expand its attention beyond its own finite form.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27688 – 14.22.3.220

BN – Z – K

All that he knows and experiences are things in this world of the five senses. The Overself is not within their sphere of operation and therefore not to be known and experienced in the same way. This is why the first real entry into it must necessarily be an entry into no-thing-ness. The mystical phenomena and mystical raptures happen merely on the journey to this Void.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27689D – 14.22.3.221

BN – Z – DEK

It is a consciousness where the "here" is universal and the "now" is everlasting.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27690 – 14.22.3.222

BA11 – ZZ – DK

There is a sense of the total absence of time, a feeling of the unending character of one's inner being.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27691 – 14.22.3.223

BN – Z – D

The being which he finds at the end of this inner search is an anonymous one. He may ask for a name but he will not get one. He must be satisfied with the obscure response: "I Am That I Am!"

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27692 – 14.22.3.224

BA11 – ZZ – DK

The Overself is there, but it is hidden within our conscious being. Only there, in this deep atmosphere, do we come upon the mirage-free Truth, the illusion-free Reality.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27693 – 14.22.3.225

BN – ZZ – D

There are deep places in men's hearts and minds into which they rarely venture. And yet treasures are hidden there—flashes of intuition, important revelations, extra strengths, and above all a peace out of this world.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27694 – 14.22.3.226

BN – Z – D

It is Conscious Silence.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27695 – 14.22.3.227

BN – X – K

Yes, your guardian angel is always present and always the secret witness and recorder of your thoughts and deeds. Whether you go down into the black depths of hell or ascend to the radiant heights of heaven, you do not walk alone.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27697 – 14.22.3.229

BN – Z – D

Wherever they happen to be, in wide-scattered countries, widely different climates, and far-apart centuries, men have experienced this divine presence. What does this show? That it is not dependent on place and hour, not subject to the laws of space-time.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27698 – 14.22.3.230

BN – Z – D

Deep down in the mind and feeling of man is the mysterious godlike Essence seemingly too deep—alas!—for the ordinary man, who therefore lets himself be content with hearing from others about it and thus only at second hand.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27699 – 14.22.3.231

BN – Z – D

If we believe in or know of the reality of the Overself, we must also believe or know that our everyday, transient life is actively rooted in its timeless being.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27700 – 14.22.3.232

BN – Z – D

It is the life-giving, body-healing, or occult-power-bestowing force in man. It is not a theoretical conception but a quickening, transforming power.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27701 – 14.22.3.233

BN – Z – DK

There is a godlike thing within us which theology calls the spirit and which, because it is also a portion of the higher power within the universe, I call the Overself. He is wise indeed who takes it as his truest guide and makes it his protective guardian.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27703 – 14.22.3.235

BN – ZZ – D

In the end, after many a life on earth, he will find that much of what he looks for in others will have to be found in himself. But it will not be found in the surface self. It lies deeply submerged, in a region where the purest forms exist.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27704 – 14.22.3.236

BA11 – ZZ – DK

The Overself is not only the best part of himself but also the unalterable part.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27707 – 14.22.3.239

BN – ZZ – D

I am well aware that I have used the term Overself inconsistently and indifferently and that now a fresh definition is imposed upon the work in my new book. Does the cancellation of the earlier definitions render them false? By no means! They are perfectly correct when read 'in their proper places'; their defect is that they are incomplete; they are not representative of the highest truth; they are true in the world of religion, or of mysticism, as the case may be, but not in the world of philosophy.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27708 – 14.22.3.240

UR_3.2 – ZZ – K

Although the Overself does not think, its presence makes thinking possible, and although it does not register on our five senses, it makes all sense-impressions possible.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27709 – 14.22.3.241

BN – X – D

We cannot see, hear, or touch without the mind. But the mind, in its turn, cannot function or even exist without the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27710 – 14.22.3.242

BN – Z – D

It is from the Overself that every true prophet receives his power. "I of myself am nothing", confessed Jesus.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27711 – 14.22.3.243

B_11 – ZZ – DK

The Overself does not evolve and does not progress. These are activities which belong to time and space. It is nowhere in time and nowhere in space. It is Here, in this deep beautiful and all-pervading calm, that a Human Being finds his real identity.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27713 – 14.22.3.245

BSG_4 – ZZZ – DM*

Everything that exists in time must also exist in change. The Overself does not exist in time and is not subject to change.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27714 – 14.22.3.246

BN – ZZZ – DK

Do not insult the Higher Power by calling it unconscious; it is not only fully conscious but also fully intelligent. Your real Self, which is this power, needs neither commands nor instructions from the physical brain.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27715 – 14.22.3.247

BN – X – D

The Overself is not anyone's private property.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27716 – 14.22.3.248

BN – X – D

Why did Jesus give the opening of the Lord's Prayer as "Our Father" and not as "My Father?" Was he not trying to get his disciples away from the self-centered attitude to the cosmic one? Was he not widening their outlook to make them think of mankind's welfare?

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27717 – 14.22.3.249

B_11 – Z – K

There is no way of showing the Overself for anyone's examination. Since the ego comes out of the Overself, the only way it can see it again is to go back into it.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27719 – 14.22.3.251

BN – Z – D

Miguel de Molinos: "The Soul is a pure Spirit and does not feel herself. Its acts are not perceptible."

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27720 – 14.22.3.252

BN – X – D

This beneficent, freedom-bestowing, character-transforming, soul-awakening, gentle Presence is Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27721 – 14.22.3.253

BN – Z – DK

Somewhere at the hidden core of man's being there is light, goodness, power, and tranquillity.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27725 – 14.22.3.257

BN – X – D

The infinite divine life dwells within all embodied creatures, therefore in all mankind. It is the final source of his feelings and his consciousness, however limited they are here in the body itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27726 – 14.22.3.258

BN – X – D

There is nothing else like it; nothing with which the Overself could be compared.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27727 – 14.22.3.259

BN – X – D

It has no form to be pictured and weighed, measured and numbered; it makes no movement to be timed and no sound to be registered on the ear drum.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27728 – 14.22.3.260

BN – X – D

The point in the heart is a focus for meditation and also an experience during meditation. When, however, one rises to the ultimate path he disregards the heart because the Overself has nothing to do with localities or geography of any kind; it cannot be measured.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27734 – 14.22.3.266

BN – Z – DK

There is more within him of the good than a man suspects, even though experience may make him believe otherwise. But it lies in a deeper layer, hence it needs a longer time to bring it up.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27736 – 14.22.3.268

BN – X – D

The Christ-self who was in Jesus is in us too.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27743 – 14.22.3.275

B_11 – Z – DK

That which is within us as the Overself, being godlike, is out of time and eternal.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27751 – 14.22.3.283

BN – Z – D

There is something within him which is without personal existence, without a name, and without scrutable face. It is the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27752 – 14.22.3.284

BN – Z – D

It is "the sacred spirit dwelling within us, observer and guardian of all our evil and our good" of Seneca.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27755 – 14.22.3.287

BN – X – D

In the gravest depths of a man's being he will find, not fouling slime and evil, but cleansing divinity and goodness.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27757 – 14.22.3.289

BN – Z – K

It is inaccessible to the intellect, unknowable by ordinary egoistic man. Yet there are some into whose consciousness It has entered.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27759 – 14.22.3.291

BN – Z – D

It is the presence of the Overself within us which makes more consciousness possible, whether it be the consciousness of the dream or the consciousness of waking.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27763 – 14.22.3.295

BN – X – D

There are two biblical quotations, one from the Song of Solomon and one from Saint Paul, that accurately refer to the Overself. This indeed is the real soul of man, whose finding here and now, during our life on earth, is the task silently set us by life itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27764 – 14.22.3.296

BN – ZZ – D

The pristine nature of the Self is effortless, spontaneous 'Tapas'. Incessant 'Tapas' of that kind leads to the manifestation of all powers. —Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27767 – 14.22.3.299

BN – X – K

The Overself is truly our guardian angel, ever with us and never deserting us. It is our invisible saviour. But we must realize that it seeks primarily to save us not from suffering but from the ignorance which is the cause of our suffering.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27769 – 14.22.3.301

BN – ZZZ – DK*

This particular function of the Overself was known also to the more percipient among men of the Middle Ages and of antiquity. Thus Epictetus: "Zeus hath placed by the side of each, a man's own Guardian Spirit, who is charged to watch over him."

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Toward 'defining' the Overself

#27770 – 14.22.3.302

BN – X – D

We found it necessary, in the interests of greater precision and better exposition, to restrict the term "Overself" to represent the ultimate reality of man, and to introduce the term "World-Mind" to represent the ultimate reality of the universe.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27772 – 14.22.3.304

UR_2.2 – ZZZ – DMK

The Overself is the representative of God in man. The soul constitutes both the connection between man and God and the ultimate attainment of man.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27773M – 14.22.3.305

BA11 – ZZ – DX

The Overself is a part of World-Mind. Whereas World-Mind is beyond human capacity to know, the Overself is within that capacity.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27774 – 14.22.3.306

BN – X – D

That point 'in' man where the two worlds of being—infinite and finite—can be said to touch, is Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27775 – 14.22.3.307

BN – Z – D

The Overself is so close to God, so akin to the World-Mind, that no man need look farther, or aspire higher.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27777 – 14.22.3.309

BN – X – D

The Overself is the highest point in the human being; it is there where he can find himself "made in the image of God."

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27778 – 14.22.3.310

BN – X – DK*

The Overself is 'our' knowledge, experience, or sight of the World-Mind, of God, and is the only one we shall ever get while we are still in the flesh.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27780 – 14.22.3.312

BN – Z – DK

There is some point in each individual being where the human and the divine must join, where man's little consciousness bends low before, or blends subtly with, the Universal Mind which is his ultimate source. It is impossible to describe that intersection in any terms which shall adequately fit it, but it can be named. In philosophy it is the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27782 – 14.22.3.314

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The essence of man is his Overself, which is an emanation from Mind.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27783 – 14.22.3.315

BN – Z – D

Here is the focal point of all spiritual searching, here man meets God.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27784 – 14.22.3.316

BN – X – DK1

The Overself is the point where the One Mind is received into consciousness. It is the "I" freed from narrowness, thoughts, flesh, passion, and emotion—that is, from the personal ego.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27785 – 14.22.3.317

BN – ZZ – DM1*

That point where man meets the Infinite is the Overself, where he, the finite, responds to what is absolute, ineffable and inexhaustible Being, where he reacts to That which transcends his own existence—this is the Personal God he experiences and comes into relation with. In this sense his belief in such a God is justifiable.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27786 – 14.22.3.318

BN – Z – DK1

Overself is the inner or true self of man, reflecting the divine being and attributes. The Overself is an emanation from the ultimate reality but is neither a division nor a detached fragment of it. It is a ray shining forth but not the sun itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27787 – 14.22.3.319

UR_2.2 – ZZZ – DMK1

It is true that the nature of God is inscrutable and that the laws of God are inexorable. But it is also true that the God-linked soul of man is accessible and its intuitions available.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27788 – 14.22.3.320

BN – Z – DK1

This divine self is the unkillable and unlosable soul, forever testifying to the source, whence it came.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27789 – 14.22.3.321

BN – Z – D

That point of contact in consciousness where man first feels God and later vanishes into God, is the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27791 – 14.22.3.323

BN – Z – D

The Overself is a part of the One Infinite Life-Power as the dewdrop is a part of the ocean.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27792 – 14.22.3.324

BN – Z – D

That which connects the individual man to the Universal Spirit, I call the Overself. This connection can never be broken. Its existence is the chief guarantee that there is hope of salvation for 'all', not merely for those who think their group alone will be granted it.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27793 – 14.22.3.325

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

With this grand consciousness, man reaches the APHELION of his orbit. He can go no higher and remain man.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27794 – 14.22.3.326

BN – X – K

The World-Mind’s reflection in us is the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27796 – 14.22.3.328

BN – X – D

The thoughts and feelings which flow like a river through our consciousness make up the surface self. But underneath them there is a deeper self which, being an emanation from divine reality, constitutes our true self.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27797 – 14.22.3.329

BN – Z – D

That which I call the Overself is intermediate between the ordinary human and the World-Mind. It includes man's higher nature but stretches into what is above him, the divine.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27798 – 14.22.3.330

BN – Z – D

In the normally covered centre of a man's being, covered by his thoughts and feelings and passions as a person, a self, IT IS. It is here that he is connected with the larger Being behind the universe, the World-Mind. In this sense he is not really an isolated unit, not alone. God is with him. It was a simple shepherd on Mount Horeb who, during a glimpse, asked "Who art Thou?" Came the answer: "I am He Who IS!"

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27799 – 14.22.3.331

BN – X – DEK

It is his 'own' greater self, his Overself, that he thus experiences, although he may be so overwhelmed by its mysterious Power, so awed by its ethereality, that he usually believes—and names—it God. And in one mode of meaning, his belief is not without justification. For at the core of the experience, he, the atom within the World-Mind, receives the revelation that it is ever there and, more, ever supporting him.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27800 – 14.22.3.332

BN – X – D

It is this, the deepest part of his being, his final essential self, which is a man's Overself, and which links him with the World-Mind. It is this Presence within which evokes all his spiritual quality.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27801 – 14.22.3.333

BN – Z – D

This is the essential being of a man, where his link with God lies.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27802 – 14.22.3.334

BN – Z – DK

Epictetus helps us to understand, and our intellect to define, the Overself. "Do you not know," he says, "that you carry a god within you? . . . You are a distinct portion of the essence of God and contain a part of Him within yourself."

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and World-Mind

#27803 – 14.22.3.335

BN – Z – D

It is amazing paradox that the Overself completely transcends the body yet completely permeates it: both these descriptions are simultaneously true.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27804 – 14.22.3.336

BN – Z – DK

Although the Overself does not pass through the diverse experiences of its imperfect image, the ego, nevertheless it witnesses them. Although it is aware of the pain and pleasure experienced by the body which it is animating, it does not itself feel them; although detached from physical sensations, it is not ignorant of them. On the other hand, the personal consciousness does feel them because it regards them as states of its own self. Thus the Overself is conscious of our joys and sorrows without itself sharing them. It is aware of our sense-experience without itself being physically sentient. Those who wonder how this is possible should reflect that a man awakened from a nightmare is aware once again in the form of a revived memory of what he suffered and what he sensed but yet does not share again either the suffering or the sensations.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27805 – 14.22.3.337

BN – Z – DEK

The Overself perceives and knows the individual self, but only as an imperturbable witness—in the same way that the sun witnesses the various objects upon the earth but does not enter into a particular relation with a particular object. So too the Overself is present in each individual self as the witness and as the unchanging consciousness which gives consciousness to the individual.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27806 – 14.22.3.338

BN – X – DEK

The "I" is immeasurably greater than the ego which it projects or than the intellect, which the ego uses.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27807 – 14.22.3.339

BN – Z – D

The normal man thinks he is body plus mind, with emphasis on the body. But self-questioning and analysis show that, although he certainly has these two things and is certainly associated with them, the "I" is in fact neither of them. It is, by contrast, not changing and quite elusive. It is not in space, as the body is, nor in time, as the mind is. It is, in fact, a mystery. The attempt to find out what it is brings up the questions of existence, life, activity, and consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27808 – 14.22.3.340

BN – Z – DEK

All that anyone basically possesses unlost through all his life is his "I." All that he really is, is this same "I." The physical body, although seemingly inseparable from it, is something lived in and used, as a house is lived in and a tool is used.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27809 – 14.22.3.341

BN – Z – DMK

To look at a man and at his life from the outside is only to see half the man. To look at them from the inside is to see the other half. Put these two fragments together and there is the whole man. Or so it would seem. But what if behind his thoughts and feelings there were still another self of an utterly different kind and quality? And this exactly is his situation. He does not know all of himself, and he understands it even less. Those who have been privileged to look behind the veil can only urge him to recognize this incompleteness and teach him what steps to take to overcome it.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27810 – 14.22.3.342

BN – X – D

The divine soul in us is utterly above and unaffected by the sense impressions. If we become conscious of it, we also become conscious of a supersensual order of existence.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27811 – 14.22.3.343

BN – Z – D

It is a higher self not only in a moral sense but also in a cosmic sense. For the lower one issued forth from it, but under limitations of consciousness, form, space, and time which are not in the parent Self.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27812 – 14.22.3.344

BN – Z – DK

When we come to see that it is the body alone that expresses the coming into life and the going into death, that in the true self there is neither a beginning nor an ending but rather LIFE itself, we shall see aright.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27813 – 14.22.3.345

B_01 – ZZ – DK

No men are without their sense of the Overself, but they miscomprehend and therefore misapply it. The result is that ego, the little part, is conceived to be the whole, the All.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27814 – 14.22.3.346

BN – Z – D

Here in the ego we may perceive a reproduction of the sacred Overself under the limitations of time and space. Whoever grasps this great truth knows henceforth that this Overself is no more distant from him than his own heart and that what he calls "I" is inseparably united with what men call God.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27817 – 14.22.3.349

BN – Z – D

We do not subscribe to the belief that the divine soul has somehow gone astray and got enslaved by the animal body.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27818 – 14.22.3.350

BN – X – DK

His higher self is not polluted by his own pollutions any more than sunlight is affected by the foul places in which it often shines.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27819 – 14.22.3.351

BN – Z – D

The higher self affects the ego but is not affected by it. Its existence goes on quite independently of the serialized earth appearances of the ego, and persists when the other ceases. The insensitive can never know it, and may roundly deny it, but the others sometimes receive unforgettable glimpses for which they give thanks to Allah for years afterwards.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27820 – 14.22.3.352

BN – ZZ – DEK

Just as space is unaffected equally by the evil deeds or virtuous actions of men, so the Overself is unaffected by the character or conduct of the ego. It is neither made worse by the ego's wrong-doing nor better by its righteousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27821 – 14.22.3.353

BN – Z – D

"I am the way, the Truth", announced Jesus. Who is this 'I'? In the narrow and shallower sense it is the master. In the broader and deeper sense, it is the Christ-self within, the spiritual consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27822 – 14.22.3.354

B_11 – ZZ – DMK

Why did Jesus say, "I and my Father are one", but yet a little later add, "The Father is greater than I"? The answer is that Jesus the man had attained complete harmony with his higher Self and felt himself one with it, but the universal Christ-principle will always be greater than the man himself; the Overself will always transcend the person.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27823 – 14.22.3.355

B_11 – Z – DMK

It is an entity greater, nobler, wiser, and stronger than himself yet mysteriously and inseparably linked to himself; it is indeed his super-self.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27825 – 14.22.3.357

BN – Z – D

Our bodies are born at some point of time and somewhere in space but their essence, the Overself, is birthless, timeless, and placeless.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27826 – 14.22.3.358

BN – ZZ – D

It is never anything else than its own perfect self, never contrary to its own unique and infinite nature.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27828 – 14.22.3.360

BN – X – DK

The personal pronoun "I" really represents the Overself, the divine part of man. What people usually refer to as "I"—the body or the intellect or the emotions—is not the basic "I" at all.  

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27830 – 14.22.3.362

UR_5 – ZZZ – DK

Just as there is a sun hidden behind the sun, the divinity which animates it, so in the human being there is a Mind within the mind—and that is his Overself; It is forever with us simply because it is what we really are.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27832M – 14.22.3.364

BSG_4 – P – DX

Just as there is a sun hidden behind the sun, the divinity which animates it, so in the human being there is a Mind within the mind—and that is his Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27832 – 14.22.3.364

BA11 – ZZ – DK

The personality is always limited and chained, the higher individuality always infinite and free.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27833 – 14.22.3.365

BN – Z – D

Each man is the expression of this infinite life-power.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27834 – 14.22.3.366

BN – Z – D

The true I yields quite a different feeling, experience, and consciousness from the familiar physical ego.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27836 – 14.22.3.368

BN – Z – DK

There is a deeper level of every man's mind which is not subject to his passions, not moved by his desires, not affected by his senses.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27837 – 14.22.3.369

BN – Z – D

The Overself is the Higher Mind in human being, his divine soul as distinguished from his human-animal nature. It is the same as Plato's "Nous".

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27840 – 14.22.3.372

BSG_5 – P – D

The true unchanging self is apart from any historical era and is not dependent on outer changes of custom and form.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27841 – 14.22.3.373

BN – Z – D

The aim of the mystic is to know what he is, apart from his physical body, his lower emotion, his personal ego; it is to know his inner-most self. When this aim is successfully realized, he knows then with perfect certitude that he is a ray of the divine sun.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27842 – 14.22.3.374

BN – ZZ – D

How shall he know and understand that this very awareness, of which so small is the fragment that he experiences, is a limited and conditioned part of the Great Awareness itself, of God?

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27843 – 14.22.3.375

BN – X – D

There, within and yet behind his personal consciousness, is this other sphere of his own being into which he must one day be re-born as a chick from an egg.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Overself and ego

#27845 – 14.22.3.377

BN – Z – DEK*

The knowledge that no two human beings are alike refers to their bodies and minds. But this leaves out the part of their nature which is spiritual, which is found and experienced in deep meditation. In that, the deepest part of their conscious being, the personal self-vanishes; only consciousness-in-itself, thought-free, world-free, remains. This is the source of the "I" feeling, and it is exactly alike in the experience of all other human beings. This is the part which never dies, "where God and man may mingle".

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27848 – 14.22.3.380

BA11 – ZZ – DK

There is only one Overself for the whole race, but the point of contact with it is special and unique, and constitutes man's higher individuality.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27849 – 14.22.3.381

BN – ZZ – D

Whereas every human personality is different in its characteristics from every other one, no human Overself is different in its characteristics from any other one. The seekers of all times and all places have always found one and the same divine being when they found the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27850 – 14.22.3.382

BN – Z – D

This Overself is everywhere one and the same for all men. The experience of rising into awareness of it does not differ in actuality from one man to another, but the purity with which he absorbs it, interprets it, understands it, does.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27851E – 14.22.3.383

BA11 – ZZZ – DEK

This is the paradox, that the Overself is at once universal and individual. It is the first because it overshadows all men as a single power. It is the second because it is found by each man within himself. It is both space and the point in space. It is infinite Spirit and yet it is also the holy presence in everyone's heart.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27852 – 14.22.3.384

BN – ZZ – D

The mysterious character of the Overself inevitably puzzles the intellect. We may appreciate it better if we accept the paradoxical fact that it unites a duality and that therefore there are two ways of thinking of it, both correct. There is the divine being which is entirely above all temporal concerns, absolute and universal, and there is also the demi-divine being which is in historical relation with the human ego.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27854 – 14.22.3.386

BN – X – D

At the end of all its adventures, the lower self may indeed have to go, but the indestructible higher self will not go. In this sense there is no utter annihilation of the individual, no complete mergence of it into an all-swallowing ocean of cosmic consciousness, as so many Western critics of Eastern wisdom believe to be the latter's last word.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27857 – 14.22.3.389

BN – Z – DEK

Because of the paradoxically dual nature which the Overself possesses, it is very difficult to make clear the concept of the Overself. Human beings are rooted in the ultimate mind through the Overself, which therefore partakes on the one hand of a relationship with a vibratory world and on the other of an existence which is above all relations. A difficulty is probably due to the vagueness or confusion about which standpoint it is to be regarded from. If it is thought of as the human soul, then the vibratory movement is connected with it. If it is thought of as transcending the very notion of humanity, and therefore in its undifferentiated character, the vibratory movement must disappear.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27858 – 14.22.3.390

BN – Z – DEK1

If we are to think correctly, we cannot stop with thinking of the Overself as being only within us. After this idea has become firmly established for its metaphysical and devotional value, we must complete the concept by thinking of the Overself as being also without us. If in the first concept it occupies a point in space, in the second one it is beyond all considerations of place.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27859 – 14.22.3.391

BN – Z – DK1

We may take comfort in the fact that the Overself never at any moment abandons or obliterates the human personality, however debased it becomes. Nor could it do so, whatever foolish cults say to the contrary, for through this medium it finds an expression in time-space.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27860 – 14.22.3.392

BN – Z – D

When we say that the Overself is within the heart, it would be a great error to think that we mean it is limited to the heart. For the heart is also within it. This seeming paradox will yield to reflection and intuition. The mysterious relationship between the ego and the Overself has been expressed by Jesus in the following words: "The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father".

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27861 – 14.22.3.393

B_11 – Z – DEK

The dictionary defines 'individuality' as separate and distinct existence. Both the ego and the Overself have such an existence. But whereas the ego has this and nothing more, the Overself has this consciousness within the universal existence. That is why we have called it the 'higher individuality'.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27862 – 14.22.3.394

BN – Z – D

The fact that after awaking the mind picks up the thoughts of the day before, that the individuality connects with the old individuality of pre-sleep, proves the continuity of existence of a part of Self both during sleep as during waking.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27863 – 14.22.3.395

BN – X – D

Every situation in human life can be approached from two possible points of view. The first is the limited one and is that of the personal self. The second is the larger one and is that of Universal Self. The larger and longer view always justifies itself in the end.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27864 – 14.22.3.396

BN – X – D

We must not imagine that the subordination of this sense of personal identity leads to any loss of consciousness—rather the reverse. Man becomes more, not less, for he emerges into the fullness and freedom of one universal life. He thinks of himself as: "I, A.B., am a point within the Overself," whereas before he only thought: "I am A.B."

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27866 – 14.22.3.398

BN – Z – D

The individuality is beyond the personality—its level is higher. The one must prompt while the other must watch the pitiless destruction of its wishes and hopes, its values and desires, until only the pure being of individuality is left.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27868 – 14.22.3.400

BN – Z – DK

As a wave sinks back into the sea, so the consciousness which passes out of the personal self sinks back into its higher individuality.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27870 – 14.22.3.402

BN – Z – D

This is the general mind behind our small personal minds, the one behind the many.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Central and universal

#27871 – 14.22.3.403

BN – X – D

There is no other way to settle doubts concerning the soul with incontestable certainty than the way of getting personal knowledge of it by a mystical glimpse.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27872 – 14.22.3.404

BN – ZZ – D

Even when a man denies the Overself and thinks it out of his view of life, he is denying and thinking by means of the Overself's own power—attenuated and reflected though it be. He is able to reject the divine presence with his mind only because it is already in his mind.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27873 – 14.22.3.405

BN – ZZ – D

There is a long line of testimony, to which I must add my own, that the Overself is no metaphysical abstraction or mystical hallucination but a living and inspiring, if uncommon, part of human experience. To know it is to know one's best self.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27875 – 14.22.3.407

BN – ZZ – D

The Overself is not something imagined or supposed. Its presence is definitely felt.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27876 – 14.22.3.408

BN – ZZZ – DK

If a man asks why he can find no trace of God's presence in himself, I answer that he is full of evidence, not merely traces. God is present in him as consciousness, the state of being aware; as thought, the capacity to think; as activity, the power to move; and as stillness, the condition of ego, emotion, intellect, and body which finally and clearly reveals what these other things simply point to. "Be still and know that I am God" is a statement of being whose truth can be tested by experiment and whose value can be demonstrated by experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27877 – 14.22.3.409

B_03 – ZZ – K1

When we realize that the intellect can put forth as many arguments against this theme as for it, we realize that there is in the end only one perfect proof of the Overself's existence. The Overself must prove itself. This can come about faintly through the intuition or fully through the mystical experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27878D – 14.22.3.410

BN – Z – D

The difficulty of collecting and studying, sifting and describing the varieties of mystical experience which may be found today is a barrier to the expansion of scientific psychology. For those persons who are most eager to talk about their own experiences are the most dubious and unreliable source. Those who are the least eager, feeling the matter to be too private, personal, intimate, and sacred, are able to offer valuable evidence.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27880 – 14.22.3.412

B_03 – ZZZ – K

Testimony to the existence and reality of the glimpse will be found in the literatures of all peoples through all times. It is not a newly manufactured idea, nor a newly manufactured fancy. A man who denies it is foolish so to limit his own possibilities, but he may learn better with time.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27881 – 14.22.3.413

BN – Z – D

These glimpses cannot rightly be dismissed by the scientist as merely self-suggested or wholly hallucinatory. Nor can they properly be regarded by the metaphysician as valueless for truth. As human beings we live by experience, and they are personal experiences which help to confirm the truth of the impersonal bases underneath them and which encourage us to continue on the same path.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27882 – 14.22.3.414

BN – Z – DEK

The Overself is a living reality. Nobody would waste his years, his endeavours, and his energies in its quest if it were merely an intellectual concept or an emotional fancy.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27883 – 14.22.3.415

BN – ZZ – D

The Overself is not only a necessary conception of logical thought. It is also a beautiful fact of personal experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27884 – 14.22.3.416

B_01 – ZZZ – DK

There are three signs, among others, of the Soul's presence in a Soul-denying generation. They are: moral conscience, artistic imagination, and metaphysical speculation.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27885 – 14.22.3.417

BN – X – D

To the man of insight there is something strange, ironic, and yet pathetic in the spectacle of those who turn the consciousness and the understanding derived from Overself against the acknowledgment of Its existence.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27888 – 14.22.3.420

BN – X – D

That the Overself is not the product of an inflated imagination but has a real existence, is a truth which any man who has the required patience and submits to the indispensable training may verify himself.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27890 – 14.22.3.422

BN – ZZ – D

Because he regards the theory and practice of his subject from the inside, the mystic can discuss it with a correctness and authority which most critics do not possess because they are outside it. They are largely in the dark about it—he is actually in the light.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27891 – 14.22.3.423

BN – Z – DEK

Do these moods of utter tranquillity have to repeat themselves again and again to convince doubting man that there is indeed a state of consciousness beyond the everyday so-called normal one? Is not such personal experience the best offering of testimony from the Soul to its own existence?

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27897 – 14.22.3.429

BN – Z – DEK

At such times, unexpected and unsought though they are, he feels the nearness of God, the love of God, the reality of God. Whoever ventures to call them delusions is himself deluded.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27899 – 14.22.3.431

BN – Z – D

Deep within his own heart, hidden within his own consciousness, every person carries all the evidence for the truth of these teachings that he or she is ever likely to need.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27900 – 14.22.3.432

BN – Z – DK

Not only philosophy, but the teaching of all seers like Krishna and Jesus, would have to be pronounced fraudulent if the Overself were not a fact.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27901 – 14.22.3.433

A241224 – ZZ – DK

Men who pronounce judgements or write opinions upon mysticism without actual and personal experience of its mental states and phenomena, who interpret it only from the outside and only as observers, cannot be reliable authorities on the subject.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27903 – 14.22.3.435

BN – Z – D

There is only one way to settle his question of whether the Overself exists and that is the very way most moderns refuse to accept. Each must gain for himself the 'authentic' mystical experience. Sugar can really be known only by its sweet taste, the Overself only by opening the doors of the mind to consciousness of its presence.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27905 – 14.22.3.437

BN – ZZ – DK

Those who have had this overwhelming experience require no arguments to make them believe in the soul. They know that they 'are' the soul.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27906 – 14.22.3.438

BN – ZZ – DK

An experience which is so convincing, so real, that no intellectual argument to the contrary can stand against it, is final. Let others say what they will, he remains unswayed.

Inspiration and the Overself > The Overself's Presence > Responding to critics

#27907 – 14.22.3.439

BN – ZZ – DK

A glimpse is a transitory state of mental enlightenment and emotional exaltation. It is an experience of self-discovery. The experience explains a man to himself for the first time, lights up the fact that he lives in two planes at one and the same time. It reveals his ego as the illusion which envelops his consciousness and his Overself as the reality behind his consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27908M – 14.22.4.1

UR_3.2 – ZZ – DXK

It is an experience of 'self-discovery', not the discovery of some other being, whether a guru or a god.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27909 – 14.22.4.2

BN – Z – DK

A glimpse is a transitory state of mental enlightenment and emotional exaltation. It is an experience of self-discovery. The experience explains a man to himself for the first time, lights up the fact that he lives in two planes at one and the same time. It reveals his ego as the illusion which envelops his consciousness and his Overself as the reality behind his consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27909EM – 14.22.4.2

UR_3.2 – ZZ – DXK

These brief flashes bring with them great joy, great beauty, and great uplift. They are, for most people, their first clear vivid awakening to the existence and reality of a spiritual order of being. The contrast with their ordinary state is so tremendous as to shame it into pitiful drabness. The intention is to arouse and stimulate them into the longing for re-entry into the spirit, a longing which inevitably expresses itself in the quest.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27910 – 14.22.4.3

BN – X – DEK

All our ordinary experience comes to us through sense responses or intellectual workings. But here is a kind of experience which does not come through these two channels. It is not a series of sensations nor a series of thoughts. What is it, then? Philosophy says it belongs to the transcendental world.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27912 – 14.22.4.5

BN – X – D

The glimpse may be best compared to a moment of wakefulness in a long existence of sleep.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27914 – 14.22.4.7

BN – X – D

How is one to describe this experience? It is an expansion, and yet also a concentration, of consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27921 – 14.22.4.14

BN – X – D

These are the real waking moments of a man's life: for the rest he is asleep without ever guessing that he is.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27924 – 14.22.4.17

BN – X – D

In religious language he is in God, and in mystical language God is in him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27930 – 14.22.4.23

BN – Z – D

In the world's literatures there are many records left by persons who have had this glimpse, but each has interpreted it in his or her own way, each has reacted within the frame of his or her personal background.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27932 – 14.22.4.25

BN – X – D

It is to experience while still in the flesh what some others will not experience until they are in the spirit.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27936 – 14.22.4.29

BN – Z – K

At such times he becomes aroused from the sleep of ignorance to the Overself's constant presence.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27937 – 14.22.4.30

BN – Z – D

It is the highest possible form of self-recognition. It is the discovery of who and what we really are.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses

#27943 – 14.22.4.36

BN – Z – D

That God is present in each person's life may seem unbelievable to so large a number of us. Yet it is for those undergoing the experience certitude, not theory. It is generally believed that hardly more than a few attain it, but as there are degrees of such an attainment one could say that in the lesser ones there are more successes than people generally know.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27945 – 14.22.4.38

BN – X – DEK

Even to ordinary persons moments can come which can pass very easily into glimpses. But their importance is not recognized and so the opportunities are missed. It is pitiful and pathetic that anyone should be so close to the diviner self and not take advantage of the propinquity by a pause of activity and a surrender to the delicate feeling which would develop of itself into a glimpse. It is pathetic, because these moments are in the nature of clues leading to the inward way; pitiful, because such people are living in a kind of blind alley and must one day retrace their steps.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27946 – 14.22.4.39

BN – X – D

This kind of thing [glimpses] is supposed to lie outside common experience, but the fact is that it comes more often through Nature, art, or music than most people suspect.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27947 – 14.22.4.40

B_09 – ZZ – K

Psychologists and psychoanalysts are beginning to find a minority among their ranks who put a high value upon these glimpses which they call "peak-experiences." Academically qualified, professionally trained, and science-oriented just like their colleagues, they yet differ in appreciating and studying such experiences as being important to an adequate knowledge of the human being.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27949 – 14.22.4.42

BN – X – D

The point which has yet to be made is that these glimpses are not supernatural superhuman and solely religious experiences. When scientific psychology has advanced to the point where it really understands the human being in all his height and depth, and not merely his surface, it will see this.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27952 – 14.22.4.45

BN – Z – DK1

Although he is normally quite unconscious of this connection with the Overself, once at least in a lifetime there is a flash which visits him and breaks the unconsciousness. He has a glimpse of his highest possibility. But the clearness and intensity of this glimpse depend upon his receptivity. They may amount to little or much.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27953 – 14.22.4.46

BN – Z – DM1

Many people without pretensions to mystical knowledge or belief have had this experience, this glimpse of timeless loveliness, through Nature, art, music, or even for no apparent reason at all.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27954 – 14.22.4.47

B_09 – ZZ – K1

Those who have followed the Quest in previous lives will generally receive a glimpse at least twice during the present one. They will receive it in early life during their teens or around the threshold of adult life. This will inspire them to seek anew. They will receive it again in late life during the closing years of the reincarnation. This will be bestowed as a Grace of the Overself. Those aspirants who bemoan the loss of their early glimpse should remind themselves, in hours of depression, that it will recur before they leave the body. In addition to those glimpses which attend the opening and closing years of a lifetime, a number of others may be had during the intervening period as a direct consequence and reward of the efforts, disciplines, aspirations, and self-denials practised in that time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27955 – 14.22.4.48

BN – ZZ – DEK1

We ought not to mistake this for the exception; it is really the type. Most aspirants have experienced this mystical glimpse, brief and unexpected perhaps, which has started or kept them on this quest.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27956 – 14.22.4.49

BN – Z – DK

Even those men who assert or lament that they have never had a single glimpse during their whole lifetime will get it at the end. For it is a divinely ordained part of the process of dying.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27957 – 14.22.4.50

BN – Z – D

When the genuine mystical experience comes, it presents the student with the rare chance to know for himself a state in the evolution of consciousness which still lies far ahead of mankind generally.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27958 – 14.22.4.51

BN – Z – D

Such memorable glimpses of a higher state of Being, which encourage and reassure us, may occur not only at the beginning of our spiritual career but also at the beginning of each new cycle within it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27959 – 14.22.4.52

BSG_5 – Z – D

This mystical glimpse comes to most men only at death, or at the fraction of a fraction of a second during the highest pitch of sexual intercourse.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27961 – 14.22.4.54

BN – X – D

At present this mystic experience is a fugitive one in the human species. But because it is also the ultimate experience of that species, there is no reason why it should not become a common one in the course of evolutionary development.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27962 – 14.22.4.55

BN – X – D

What today is believed abnormal will, in a civilization ahead of ours, be regarded as quite natural. I refer to the transcendental experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27966 – 14.22.4.59

BN – ZZ – D

There are individuals scattered here and there who have found the Overself. It is certain that they are types as well as individuals—therefore, it is certain that the whole race will also one day find the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27967 – 14.22.4.60

BN – Z – DEK

Many people pass through these experiences of the glimpse and do not really know what is happening to them because they have never studied or been taught anything about such experiences.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27970 – 14.22.4.63

BN – X – D

Moments like this have come to many men who have not recognized the preciousness, the special value, and the uncommon nature of the experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27979 – 14.22.4.72

BN – Z – D

The time will come when it will be found that glimpses are a proper part of human existence, are within the area of a normal life, are valid topics for study and examination by science.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Part of natural life-experience

#27981 – 14.22.4.74

BN – Z – D

To enter into Heaven is to enter into the fulfilment of our earthly life's unearthly purpose. And that is, simply, to become aware of the Overself. This holy awareness brings such joy with it that we then know why the true saints and the real ascetics were able to disdain all other joys. The contrast is too disproportionate. Nothing that the world offers to tempt us can be put on the same level.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27986 – 14.22.4.79

BN – Z – D

A stillness which is not simply the absence of noise, but which is rich, fruitful, and uplifting in beauty and refinement of its presence—this is the best.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27989 – 14.22.4.82

B_01 – ZZ – K

No good fortune that comes his way will ever after be counted so great as the good fortune which he now feels to be his in the realization of the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27990 – 14.22.4.83

BN – Z – K

We cannot know God in the fullness of his consciousness but we can know the link which we have with God. Call it the soul, if you must, or the Overself if you prefer, but to catch a glimpse of this link is to be reborn.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27993 – 14.22.4.86

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

The glimpse gives him a journey to a land flowing not with milk and honey, but with goodness and beauty, with peace and wisdom. It is the best moment of his life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27994 – 14.22.4.87

BN – ZZ – DK1

When a man's consciousness is turned upside-down by a glimpse, when what he thought most substantial is revealed as least so, when his values are reversed and the Good takes on a new definition, he writes that day down as his spiritual birthday.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27995 – 14.22.4.88

BN – ZZ – DK1

These moments, when spiritual presence is distinctly felt, may be rare or frequent, misunderstood or recognized, but they are moments of blessing. And this is true even if they open the door only slightly and let in merely a chink of light.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#27999 – 14.22.4.92

BN – Z – D

In these moments of a glimpse, he discovers the very real presence of the Overself. They provide him with a joy, an amiability, which disarms the negative side of his character and brings forward the positive side. These are precious moments; they cannot be too highly valued. And though they must pass, some communication with them is always possible through memory.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28000 – 14.22.4.93

BSG_5 – Z – DK

It is far better than being ignorant to know what is read in books or heard at lectures on this topic, but far better than both of these is to 'feel' vividly the Overself's presence and reality, to know the truth of It with complete certainty.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28004 – 14.22.4.97

BN – ZZ – D

No better fortune can come to a man or woman than this serene inward well-being and this certitude of Universal Truth.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28005 – 14.22.4.98

B_01 – ZZZ – K

"He that loseth his life shall save it". Those who would translate Jesus' words into generous emotion and not into metaphysical insight have never known the real meaning of those words. For the philanthropic service of others is a noble but secondary ideal, whereas the mystical union with the Overself is a priceless and primary achievement.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28006 – 14.22.4.99

B_11 – Z – DK

The freedom he feels in such moments and the consolation he gets from them are indications of the value of the distant goal itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28007 – 14.22.4.100

BN – Z – D

Those rare moments of exaltation and uplift, of spiritual glimpse and inward freedom, are of inestimable value. They show the aspirant what he may become, affirm the reality of the ideal and reveal its possibility.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28010 – 14.22.4.103

BN – X – D

These glimpses come upon us unawares, inadvertently as it were. There is no higher experience in our past to compare with them, and no lovelier.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28016 – 14.22.4.109

BN – Z – DK

We need these occasional confirmations from the Overself of its own existence.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28020 – 14.22.4.113

BN – Z – D

If he can penetrate to this inmost region of consciousness, he will penetrate also to the secret purpose of the few decades of earthly life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28022 – 14.22.4.115

BN – Z – D

Some kind of awakening is the usual prelude before people take to the Quest in real earnest. The glimpse provides it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28023 – 14.22.4.116

BN – Z – D

There is an image of God within each man; once seen, he will forever after court union with it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28024 – 14.22.4.117

BN – Z – D

It is such glorious moments—refreshing to the will and revelatory to the mind—which alone can compensate for (or justify, if you prefer the word) the long littleness, the recurring torment of living.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28026 – 14.22.4.119

BSG_5 – Z – D

What we know is so little that it ought to make us intellectually humble. But that little is nevertheless of the highest importance to us. For we know that the Overself is, that the passage to its stillness from the ego's tumult is worthwhile, and that goodness and purity, prayer and meditation help us to find it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their importance

#28028 – 14.22.4.121

BA12 – ZZ – DK

How many have asked in puzzlement why the glimpses of reality cannot remain with them, how many have deplored its brevity! Plotinus long ago gave them his answer: "Man can cease to become man, and become God; but man cannot be God and man at the same time."

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their frequency and duration

#28033 – 14.22.4.126

BN – X – D

He can hold himself in this egoless state for a brief while only. The ego soon rises up again and the glorious presence retires, for the two are incompatible.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their frequency and duration

#28034 – 14.22.4.127

BN – Z – D

Such periods are short and uncommon but they lift us up and draw us in. We feel then that there is peace and joy for us as ultimate possibilities, even if they are not immediate actualities.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their frequency and duration

#28035 – 14.22.4.128

BN – Z – DEK

These glimpses of Reality which wake us out of the world of illusion come to us only at intervals. We cannot hold them, but we can repeat them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their frequency and duration

#28037 – 14.22.4.130

BN – Z – D

The glimpse lasts a moment, a minute, an hour, or a week—who can say, for it is a mysterious grace? But in that while, the oscillation of human thoughts is stilled and time takes a rest. It cannot be shared with others—although they may notice or sense some of its fruit—and to that extent it is a private experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Their frequency and duration

#28040 – 14.22.4.133

BN – ZZ – D

The energy which appears to us as light is the basis of the universe, the principle from which all things are made.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28059 – 14.22.4.152

BN – Z – D

The light streaming from a table lamp proves the existence of electricity. The light streaming into the mind in these exalted moments proves the existence of the Soul.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28062 – 14.22.4.155

BN – Z – D

Whoever approaches the Divine Source of all things comes into the aura of its Power and the perception of its Light.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28063 – 14.22.4.156

BN – Z – D

If the Light is not resisted, by timidity, ignorance, or egoism, it will work upon the entire human being, radically transforming his outlook, life, and consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28066 – 14.22.4.159

BN – Z – D

If he can hold himself in the Light steadily and unfalteringly, his consciousness will be raised to a higher plane.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28068 – 14.22.4.161

BN – Z – D

The inner light will give him a glimpse of an ennobled and purified life and inspire him with the urge to realize it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28069 – 14.22.4.162

BN – Z – D

One who beholds the Light may be grateful for several reasons. First, it is the only occult experience of which it may be said that it is entirely without risk or peril. Second, it is the loftiest of all clairvoyant visions. Third, it confers the feeling of perfect felicity, not in the worldly sense, but of an ethereal unearthly kind. Fourth, it is a direct manifestation of God to man, being the first of his outpourings, hence an uncommon blessing, a grace. Fifth, if it appears in consciousness as Power, the recipient may feel a tremendous force, unknown otherwise, throbbing all around and within him, or a sudden lightning-like flash of complete comprehension: he understands what neither bodily sense nor intellectual faculty can understand—the supernatural meaning of Spirit, of eternity, of transfiguration, and of reality.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28075 – 14.22.4.168

BN – Z – DEK

Saint John of the Cross, held unjustly as a prisoner, found his cell filled with light as he dreamed one night that the Virgin appeared to him promising help if he escaped. Martinus, the Danish mystic, told me that Jesus appeared to him in meditation surrounded by a ball of light.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28100 – 14.22.4.193

BN – X – D

… that God's reality is the overwhelming fact of existence.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28110E – 14.22.4.203

BSG_4 – P – DE

Seeing the Light in front of him is one state; being merged into it is another, and superior.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28111 – 14.22.4.204

BN – ZZ – DK1

Where the Greek Orthodox Church regards the Light experience as the highest point reachable by man, the Indian Philosophic Teaching regards it as the last stage before the highest. For anything which is "seen" implies the existence of a "seer" as separate from it. This is not less so even in the case of the Holy Light. Not seeing but be-ing is the final experience according to this Teaching. "You have to go beyond seeing and find out who is the 'I' who experiences this light," said Ramana Maharshi to a disciple.

Inspiration and the Overself > Introduction To Mystical Glimpses > Glimpses and Light

#28113 – 14.22.4.206

BN – Z – DEK1

To describe the wonders and benefits, the delights and beauties of these glimpses will whet the appetite of people without satisfying it. Hence they will then be led to ask how such a glimpse is to be obtained.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28114 – 14.22.5.1

BN – X – D

The principle which makes union with the Overself possible is always the same, albeit on different levels. Whether it appears as humility in prayer, passivity to intuition, stillness in meditation, or serenity despite untoward circumstances, these attitudes temporarily weaken the ego and lessen its domination. They temporarily silence the ego and give the Overself the opportunity to touch us or work through us. So long as the ego dominates us, we are outside the reach of the Overself and separated from its help.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28116 – 14.22.5.3

BN – ZZ – D

The notion that it is first necessary to become a monk or to live like a saint before one can hope to acquire this knowledge is erroneous. One must find the inner self, and this of itself will purify us, subdue passions, and tame selfishness. When the magic touch of the Overself falls upon us, our long-held foolishness withers away, and our tightly clutched vices die off and disappear.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28117 – 14.22.5.4

BA11 – ZZZ – DK

That which is aware of the world is not the world. That which is aware of the ego is not the ego. When this awareness is isolated, the man "experiences" the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28118 – 14.22.5.5

BN – X – D

If he will try to perceive the mind by which he perceives the world, he will be practising the shortest, most direct technique of discovering the Overself. This is what Ramana Maharshi meant when he taught, "Trace the 'I' to its source."

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28119 – 14.22.5.6

BN – Z – DK*

All that a man knows and experiences is a series of thoughts. There is only one exception and that, in most cases, remains usually as an unrealized possibility. It is when he discovers his 'being'. Here thinking is not active, would in fact prevent the discovery if not reined in at the proper point. Here, in this private paradise, knowing and experiencing are one.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28120 – 14.22.5.7

BN – X – D

He should send out experimental feelers in his mental-emotional world until he recognizes an element that seems different from all the others—subtler, grander, nobler, and more divine than all the others. Then, catching firm hold of it, he should try to trace its course back to its source. > >The point where the personal ego establishes contact with the Overself is reached and passed only through a momentary lapse of consciousness. But this lapse is so brief—a mere fraction of a second—that it may be unnoticed. > >A presence enters his consciousness and comes over him, a benign feeling to which he is glad to surrender himself, a mysterious solvent of his egotism and desires.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28121 – 14.22.5.8

BN – X – DEK

Those who seek this mystic communion with the Overself, this sublime glimpse of its hidden face, must make the Quest their chosen path.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28124 – 14.22.5.11

BN – X – D

If you have enough confidence to trust in the teaching, and to move in the direction toward which it guides you, sooner or later the future will be lighted by these small fugitive glimpses.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28125 – 14.22.5.12

BN – X – D

What, it has been asked, if I get no glimpses? What can I do to break this barren, monotonous, dreary, and sterile spiritual desert of my existence? The answer is if you cannot meditate successfully go to nature, where she is quiet or beautiful; go to art where it is majestic, exalting; go to hear some great soul speak, whether in private talk or public address; go to literature, find a great inspired book written by someone who has had the glimpses.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28126D – 14.22.5.13

BN – Z – D

The fact that we know our bodies is a guarantee that we can know our souls. For the knowing principle in us is derived from the soul itself. We have only to search our own minds deeply enough and ardently enough to discover it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28127 – 14.22.5.14

BN – Z – DK1

When you begin to seek the Knower, who is within you, and to sever yourself from the seen, which is both without and within you, you begin to pass from illusion to reality.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28128 – 14.22.5.15

BN – ZZ – DK1

The mind's chief distinguishing power is to know—whether the object known is the world around or the ideas within. When this is turned in still deeper upon itself, subject and object are one, the thought-making activity comes to rest, and the "I" mystery is solved. Man discovers his real self, or being—his soul.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28129 – 14.22.5.16

BN – Z – DM1

Without learning, studying, or practising yoga, Heisenberg, famed nuclear physicist, formulator of the Law of Indeterminacy, unwittingly entered what is a high goal to yogis, Nirvikalpa Samadhi. This happened at times at the end of the deepest abstract thinking about his subject. Thoughts themselves ceased to be active. He found himself in the Stillness of the Void. He knew then, and knows today, his spiritual being.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28130 – 14.22.5.17

BN – Z – K1

Hugh Shearman: "There is no self. But, when told this, we still remain ourselves; and the utterance of this truth is again only a thought-form in a world of other thought-forms. What, then, is to be done? There can be no ending of karma by karma, no ceasing of thought-forms by creating counteracting thought-forms. The only effective thing is to come self-consciously awake at the point within ourselves at which thought itself is set in motion, to discover in ourselves the thought-producer, to find the fundamental answer to 'Who Am I?'"

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28131 – 14.22.5.18

BN – Z – K

It cannot come to those who live on the surface of things, for merely to discover and recognize its existence requires the deepest attentiveness and the strongest love. All the human forces must unite and look for this divine event.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28132 – 14.22.5.19

BN – X – D

If he has freed himself from the ego's domination, he is entitled to receive the Overself's benedictory influx.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28134 – 14.22.5.21

BN – Z – D

His contemplation of the Divine has to become so absorbing as to end in self-forgetfulness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28135 – 14.22.5.22

BN – X – K

While most glimpses come naturally and unexpectedly, it is possible to develop the experience systematically by the technique of meditation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28137 – 14.22.5.24

BN – X – D

If the glimpse is not to remain an isolated event, he must try to put less of his mind on himself and more on the Overself, less into emotional reactions to it and more into pure contemplation of it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28139 – 14.22.5.26

BN – X – D

Once a man has had this sacred experience he will naturally want to provoke it again. But how? He will find meditation to be part of the answer.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28141 – 14.22.5.28

BN – X – D

If he is tempted by these sudden glimpses to enquire whether there is a method or technique whereby they may be repeated at will, he will find that there is and that it is called meditation. If he wishes to go farther and enquire whether his whole life could continuously enjoy them all the time, the answer is that it could and that to bring it about he needs to follow a way of life called The Quest.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28142 – 14.22.5.29

BA11 – ZZ – DK1

If few attain the wonder of Overself consciousness, it is because few can lift their minds to the level of impersonality and anonymity. But what all cannot do with their minds, they can do much more easily with their hearts. Let them approach enveloped in love, and the grace will come forward to meet them. By its power, the ego which they could not bring themselves to renounce will be forgotten.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28145 – 14.22.5.32

BN – X – D

These glimpses will last longer and come more easily, hence more often, if the mind and the feelings are properly balanced, and if, at the same time, the body is purified, its organs co-operated with, and its forces regenerated.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28146 – 14.22.5.33

BN – X – D

When the glimpse happens, a man comes out of himself. It may follow his admiration of a beautiful scene in Nature or his appreciation of a beautiful poem or his simple relaxed mood, but in each case he lets go of his taut self-consciousness. This allows the entry of grace.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28147 – 14.22.5.34

BN – Z – D

If he understands that the origin of these mystical moments is his own best self, he will understand too that the shortest and quickest way to recapture them is to go directly to that self, while the surest way to keep their happiness for life is to keep constantly aware of that self.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28152 – 14.22.5.39

BN – ZZ – D

Only when the heart has been utterly emptied of all its ties can the divine presence come into it. If you can empty it only for a few moments, do not lament in despair when the visit of the presence comes to an end after a few moments.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28153 – 14.22.5.40

BN – Z – D

If he understands the process whereby he arrived at illumination, he will know how to recover it if and when it fades away. But if he arrived at it by an unconscious process, then when he loses it he will not know how to help himself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28156 – 14.22.5.43

BN – Z – K

It should be remembered that whatever kind of meditation is adopted, the glimpse which comes from it comes because we have provided the right condition for its appearance, not because our own doing makes the glimpse appear. For it comes from the realm of timelessness with which we come into some sort of harmony through the intuitive nature. What we do is in the realm of time, and it can only produce effects of a like nature.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28159 – 14.22.5.46

BN – X – D

All thinking keeps one's awareness out of the Overself. That is why even thinking about the Overself merely produces another thought. Only in the case of the sage, who has established himself in the Overself, is thinking no barrier at all. In this case, thinking may coexist with the larger awareness. So it is not enough to be a good thinker; one also has to learn how to be a good non-thinker. Of course, the way to do this is through the practice of meditation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28161 – 14.22.5.48

BN – X – D

It is not by any kind of privilege that anyone obtains the glimpse but by preparation and equilibration, with some amount of purification. To equilibrate is to calm feelings as and when necessary and render them deeper, exquisitely delicate.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28163 – 14.22.5.50

BN – X – D

The glimpse comes and the glimpse goes, suddenly or slowly, and this coming and this going are independent of his will. This does not, however, mean that he is totally helpless in the matter. Instruction or experience or both can teach him what those conditions are which assist the onset of the glimpse and those which obstruct it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28165 – 14.22.5.52

BN – X – D

In The Spiritual Crisis of Man, a chapter was devoted to the topic of glimpses. It was also touched on briefly in earlier books although not under that name, but when dealing with meditation. I tried to tell what could be done to get more out of a glimpse and mentioned recapturing the memory of it as part of an exercise. It ought to be added that the best time to do such an exercise is before falling asleep at night and on waking up in the morning. It is then easier to recapture such a memory.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28166 – 14.22.5.53

BN – X – DEK

If we want to hear the voice of the Overself, we have to create a quiet all around us and all within us and we have to listen and go on listening with patience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28167 – 14.22.5.54

BN – ZZ – D

Some, like the poet Keats, find Truth through beauty while others, like the poet Dante, find it through suffering.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28169 – 14.22.5.56

BN – X – DK

That is a valuable meditation which, whether at odd moments or for fixed periods, returns again and again to dwell on the nature of the Overself and disregards all lesser topics. Such frequent remembrances and such fixed meditations become indeed a kind of communion and are usually rewarded sooner or later by a glimpse.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28170 – 14.22.5.57

BN – X – D

The contemplation in memory of those glimpses will help him to weaken the power of negative thoughts and to weaken, however slightly, the very source of those thoughts, the ego.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28171 – 14.22.5.58

BN – X – D

The Lightning-flash may occur either after reason reaches the peak of its performance and has been exhausted, or by deliberately abandoning intellectual activity for the utmost faith and devotion. In both cases, one has to let go and sink back into the Nothing and stop further efforts on one's own. Sometimes, by destiny, the Lightning-flash can occur unexpectedly when no effort is made.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28172 – 14.22.5.59

BN – Z – DK

If he can come to this belief in the reality of his own higher self, he can come into all the knowledge he needs, all the help he needs, by heeding its guidance (felt intuitively) and by applying its injunctions to his daily life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28173 – 14.22.5.60

BN – X – D

If the ego would be willing to abdicate its rule for a short period, the way to a glimpse would be opened.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28174 – 14.22.5.61

BN – Z – D

The paradox is perfect: when he is most empty of petty ends, the shining glimpse reveals itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28175 – 14.22.5.62

BN – X – D

He must look ardently forward to, and eagerly await, each time when the Overself takes over more and more.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28176 – 14.22.5.63

BN – X – DM

Know Consciousness without its objects—and you are free!

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28179 – 14.22.5.66

BN – Z – D

An event, a book or a person, a piece of music or a piece of landscape may bring the mind to brief spiritual consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28184 – 14.22.5.71

B_09 – ZZ – K

Sometimes one word may flash a light into his mind which goes far and wide. At other times a short phrase may do the same work for him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28188 – 14.22.5.75

UR_6 – ZZZ – K

He realizes that he has had an important experience which will be followed at intervals by others, when he stands on the fringe of cosmic consciousness. Through proper metaphysical study, meditation practice, and philosophic action, it will not be difficult for him to come into the awareness of his own Overself to some extent, although it is difficult to acquire full consciousness in the present age, when the opposition of a materialistic society is so strong and intense. However, even to enjoy a fraction of this wider consciousness is to transform his life in every way.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28189 – 14.22.5.76

BN – X – DEK

Look back in imagination upon those wonderful glimpses and try to recapture the feeling they produced.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28190 – 14.22.5.77

BN – Z – D

In becoming conscious of the not-thinking hinterground of my personality, I attain true being.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > How to attract a glimpse

#28192 – 14.22.5.79

BN – X – DK

These revealings of inner life, which put its truths before the mind so vividly, seem to come by chance to some, by working for them to others. Faith in a divinely-ordered universe tells us, and philosophy confirms, that we may be sure that they follow certain laws even when we know nothing about those laws.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28195 – 14.22.5.82

BN – Z – DEK

The glimpse is as much subject to grace as the Enlightenment which endures forever. It happens outside the man's own will, although inside his consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28196 – 14.22.5.83

BN – X – D

The glimpse does not necessarily have to come to you during meditation, even though the work in meditation helps to bring about its occurrence. It may come at any time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28200 – 14.22.5.87

BN – ZZ – DK1

These glimpses come on rare occasions, for the mind's tumult is hard to still—only the Overself's Grace can do so.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28202 – 14.22.5.89

BN – Z – D

These illuminative glimpses do not come at will or at once. They do not come once for all or when it pleases us. They come and go like the wind and when it pleases them. For they come by Grace.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28204 – 14.22.5.91

BN – Z – K

Such a mystical experience is not an after-effect of illness but the latter is used by the Overself to open the way for its reception in the conscious mentality. It is an uncommon experience, a visitation of the Overself, and a manifestation of its grace. Why it occurs could only be explained in terms of the theory of reincarnation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28207 – 14.22.5.94

BN – Z – D

Out of visible light which rapidly increased in intensity and drew nearer, the face and form of Jesus appeared in this twentieth century of ours to two mystics, Sundar Singh in India and Martinus in Denmark. They saw him plainly, heard him speak clearly. In both cases they were already familiar with his name and story. Out of a not very dissimilar light, Jesus appeared to Saul on the Damascus Road. He too was familiar with them. A part of the source of these visions is to be traced back to the suggestive power of the thought-form already implanted in the mind; but the other part, the sudden and dramatic and total change of heart and shift of outlook, has still to be accounted for. What is the secret? It is contact with the Overself, Grace.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28209 – 14.22.5.96

BN – X – DEK

The divine moment happens. It is the gift of grace. Its arrival is unbidden. Yet the previous longing and working for it have not been futile.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28210 – 14.22.5.97

BN – Z – DK

The significant flash of insight may come at any moment, the sacred presence of the Overself may be felt when it is not being sought, and the noble peace of reality may even visit one who has never practised any technique at all. For as the New Testament has warned him, "The wind bloweth where it listeth," and as the Katha Upanishad has informed him, "Whomsoever the Divine chooses, by him alone is It reached."

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28211 – 14.22.5.98

BN – Z – DEK

The glimpses are not directly caused by his own endeavours. They are experiences of the working of Grace, gifts from the Overself, echoes from former lives on earth, or belated responses to his knocking on the door.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28214 – 14.22.5.101

BN – Z – D

His "I," hemmed in by its ignorance and limitations, is a small affair compared with the "I" which is drawing him onward and upward through the quest and which he must one day become. His personal self, controlled and purified, kept in its place, humbly prostrating itself before the Overself, can gratefully receive even now glimpses of that day, momentary revelations that bless the mind and put intense peace in the heart. Whoever does not feel that these affirmations apply to him but who is yet able to believe in their truth, will be befriended by grace at the time of death.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28217 – 14.22.5.104

BN – X – DEK*

The good karma or God allows him this glimpse of a loftier world in which he could live and thus put his personal turmoil to flight.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28218 – 14.22.5.105

BN – ZZ – DK

If with the purpose of seeking to disidentify himself with the ego a man practises the necessary self-denial, makes the requisite sacrifices, and trains his thoughts and feelings, after a certain time and at a certain point of his path the forces of heaven will come to him to complete the work which he has started.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28219 – 14.22.5.106

BN – X – D

One should be profoundly grateful for even a single glimpse. It is a grant of grace.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Essentially grace-given

#28220 – 14.22.5.107

BN – X – D

When the sacred moment comes, let him not hesitate to let himself go, to adore the Overself ecstatically, and to let his heart be ravished.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28221 – 14.22.5.108

BN – X – D

The Overself throws out a clue to its existence and presence. This comes in various ways to different persons. One form is a delicate feeling drawing him inward either to deeper thought or to no thought at all. If he goes along with it even though hardly aware and half-involuntarily, he will be led by this clue to a glimpse.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28223 – 14.22.5.110

BN – X – D

He should learn to recognize that these moments, which come so suddenly and so delightfully, have a special value. As soon as they come he ought to suspend all activities, put aside whatever it is that he is doing, even stop what he is speaking, and concentrate all his attention in a passive submissive way upon the delicate feelings and deep understanding that come with them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28224 – 14.22.5.111

BN – X – D

He may feel his attention being suddenly but gently drawn inwards. The moment this occurs, he should at once pay the fullest heed to this subtle whisper from the Overself, which it really is. It will pay him handsomely to drop for a few minutes whatever else he may be doing at that time. For if he does turn inwards, as he is directed to do, the whisper will grow quickly into a loud call, which will overwhelm his whole being. And as he gives himself up utterly to such listening, he will—and here we are speaking metaphorically only—be led into the sacred precincts of the Overself. The visit may be very brief, but it will also be very beautiful, finely refreshing, and greatly enlightening.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28226 – 14.22.5.113

BN – X – D

There are moments when the Overself gets at a man's consciousness, and rarer moments when he gets at Its consciousness. It is his profit to extend them, if he can, or to dwell long and often on their memory, if he cannot. What he needs to cultivate is both the facility and the capacity to expand the slightest premonitory movement of the door of intuitive awareness to the widest opening of it. Whenever he notices the very slightest indrawing to the Overself, whenever the least feeling of Its onset appears, he should at once begin to wrap himself around with the felt influence to the exclusion of everything else.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28227 – 14.22.5.114

BN – X – DEK

Let go, let thoughts come to rest, let the ego go. This is the best preparation to receive the glimpse, to invite and feel its bliss, wiping out the memories of suffering.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28228 – 14.22.5.115

B_01 – ZZZ – DK

Whenever a glimpse is given to him, he should stretch its duration to the utmost. This can be markedly helped by being very careful to keep his physical position unchanged, by not even slightly moving hand or foot or trunk. The perfectly still body offers the best condition for retaining the perfectly still mind. If attention is to be placed anywhere in the body, it should be placed in the region of the heart.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28229 – 14.22.5.116

BN – X – D

The sudden but gentle drawing away from outer activity to the inner one, "the melting away in the heart," as Oriental mystics call it, felt actually inside the middle-chest region, may make itself felt occasionally, or, in an advanced or regular meditator, every day. In the last case it will tend to appear at around the same hour each time. This is a call which ought to be treated properly with all the reverence it deserves. But before it can be honoured it must be recognized. Its marks of identification must be studied in books, learned from experience, gleaned from the statements of other persons, or obtained from a personal teacher. When it comes, the man should heed the signal, drop whatever he is doing, and obey the unuttered command to turn inwards, to practise remembrance, or to enter meditation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28230 – 14.22.5.117

BN – Z – K1

It must be something which 'possesses him', not something which he possesses.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28236 – 14.22.5.123

BN – X – K

As he receives an influx of light from the Overself, the Glimpse is experienced. But only to the degree that he has previously prepared, molded, and purified himself will he experience it correctly, completely, and safely.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28239 – 14.22.5.126

BN – Z – D

The less he lets anything disturb the full impact of this experience, the deeper will be the impression it makes. The glimpse requires a complete concentration.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28242 – 14.22.5.129

BN – Z – DK

Meet these first moments of the Glimpse's onset with instant acceptance and warm love. Then you cannot fail to enter the experience itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28243 – 14.22.5.130

BN – X – D

When the personal "me" stops the endless struggle for a while and remains quiet, inactive, and passive, the impersonal "I Who Am" arises and, little by little, gently suffuses it with new life and heals it with great love.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28246 – 14.22.5.133

BN – ZZ – DK

When the feel of this unusual and ethereal presence suffuses the heart, the first duty is to drop all attention elsewhere and respond to it. This response is not only to be immediate, unhesitating, and unquestioning; it must also be warm, loving, grateful, and joyous.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28247 – 14.22.5.134

BN – X – D

Once he catches that feeling of happy stillness, he should not let himself leave it on any excuse whatever—for thoughts will invade him and try to drag him away. He should refuse to disturb his tranquillity even for thoughts about the nature, working, and effects of the stillness itself! One objective alone should be with him, and that is to become absorbed more and more deeply in this happy state, until every idea, concept, decision, or impulse is dissolved in it. Any other objective will only invite loss of the Glimpse.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28248 – 14.22.5.135

BN – Z – D

If it comes without preliminary meditation, then it will probably come unexpectedly and suddenly. Therefore a certain amount of either knowledge or experience is required to recognize the authentic signs of its onset and to detect the precious opportunity which offers itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28249 – 14.22.5.136

BN – ZZ – DK

Acknowledge the inner call when it comes by simply dropping whatever you are doing and relax, be it for a minute or a half-hour. Let consciousness turn away from the world to Consciousness, attend to Attention, but do it all passively, receptively.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28255 – 14.22.5.142

BN – X – D

These glimpses do not come often enough to be treated casually. Their importance is easily missed in their subtle outset, but the intuitive mind will begin to learn to recognize the signs of these beginnings, to consider them sacred, and to let them do their work unhindered. This work is something like a magician's throwing of a spell over the mind.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28257 – 14.22.5.144

BN – Z – K

Surrender to it as to a piece of music. Let it take possession of you while it lasts, for it will not last. The music reaches its finale and so does the glimpse. The oscillation that is life in the body, the movement to-and-fro between the pairs of opposites, cannot be kept still, inoperative, for more than a fraction of time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28259 – 14.22.5.146

B_09 – ZZ – K

When the glimpse starts, it is best to remain still, and in the same bodily position whether sitting or standing, with eyes fixed at the same point.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28260 – 14.22.5.147

BN – X – DK

If the signals show the probability of an impending glimpse, it is an error to neglect them just because he is preoccupied with something. Better to lay aside the immediate activity and wait, relaxed and receptive, to welcome the likely visitation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Accepting, cultivating the glimpse

#28271 – 14.22.5.158

BN – X – D

The Glimpse will be at its best when his ego is not present to interfere with it. Such interference can not only come from its misinterpretations and distortions, against which philosophy so constantly warns its disciples, but also from the self-consciousness which wants him to notice how the experience is happening, to analyse what effect it is having, and to observe the reactions of other people to it. All these may be done but not then, not at the same time as the glimpse itself. Instead, they may be studied afterwards, when his consciousness has resumed its ordinary state. During the glimpse, he must let himself be completely surrendered to it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Factors hindering the glimpse

#28278 – 14.22.5.165

BN – X – DM1

The concentration upon the glimpse must be full, complete, and sustained. If, for only a single moment, he allows his attention to be diverted toward some outer thing or person, or to be divided with some inner idea, the glimpse may instantly disappear.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Factors hindering the glimpse

#28281 – 14.22.5.168

BN – Z – DM1

If he complains that the glimpse does not last, he should understand that it cannot last. Unless the mind and the heart are previously put into a properly prepared state to receive it, they will soon reject it. The process of rejection, however, is an unconscious one, for the active agents in it are the restlessness of his thoughts, the negativity of his emotions, the identification with the body, the strength of his desires and, in fact, all those things which constitute his ego. The forces which keep him apart from the higher state are within his personal self and not within that state. If he is unable to retain it, it is because he needs further purification and preparation, and its departure is really a signal indicating this need.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Factors hindering the glimpse

#28284 – 14.22.5.171

BN – X – D

The glimpse is hard to get but easy to lose. It slips away if he interferes with it by becoming intellectually analytic or emotionally conceited during its brief reign.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Factors hindering the glimpse

#28285 – 14.22.5.172

BN – Z – D

In those first few moments of its beginning the glimpse is so fragile, so vulnerable, that even a small movement of interest elsewhere is likely to bring it to a premature end.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Factors hindering the glimpse

#28289 – 14.22.5.176

BN – X – D

Many have experienced the early beginnings of a glimpse but, failing to recognize it, have aborted it unwittingly by inattention to this delicate feeling.

Inspiration and the Overself > Preparing for Glimpses > Factors hindering the glimpse

#28295 – 14.22.5.182

BN – Z – DK

These glimpses come at the most unexpected of times and in the most unexpected places. It is not possible to be dogmatic about their appearance and be correct at the same time. Reports have been received which reveal that they may come abruptly during the strain and pressure of business or professional activity, as well as during the relaxation of leisure hours, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the day, during pleasurable periods or amid great suffering.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28296 – 14.22.6.1

BSG_5 – P – DE

The Overself's take-over is not always the same but changes with the time and the occasion, the person and the place. It may be gentle, quiet, almost unmarked at first, or it may be like a tremendous force, commanding and irresistible.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28297 – 14.22.6.2

BN – Z – D

When this consciousness takes hold of a man, it takes him by surprise. Infinity is so utterly different from what he was experiencing a few minutes earlier that its wonder, its truth, its beauty, its love fill him abruptly, as if in descent from the skies.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28300 – 14.22.6.5

BN – Z – D

A passing sign of progress in arousing latent forces and a physical indication that he is on the eve of noteworthy mystical experience may be a sudden unexpected vibratory movement in the region of the abdomen, in the solar plexus. It usually comes when he has been relaxed for a short time from the daily cares, or after retiring to bed for the night. The diaphragmatic muscle will appear to tremble violently and something will seem to surge to and fro like a snake behind the solar plexus. This bodily agitation will soon subside and be followed by a pleasant calm and out of this calm there will presently arise a sense of unusual power, of heightened control over the animal nature and human self. With this there may also come a clear intuition about some truth needed at the time and a revelatory expansion of consciousness into supersensual reality.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28306 – 14.22.6.11

BN – X – K1

The beginner usually has to go through an emotional experience in order to receive a mystical experience, but the proficient is under no necessity to do so.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28317 – 14.22.6.22

BN – X – D

In that moment he feels on the very verge of eternity, about to lose himself in its impersonal depths.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28320 – 14.22.6.25

BN – Z – D

When the opportunity to gain a glimpse of his Overself draws near, it will be foreshadowed by certain happenings, either of an inward or an outward nature, or both.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28321 – 14.22.6.26

BN – Z – D

They may come quite abruptly, those intensely lived moments of true vision, those spasmodic glimpses of a beauty and truth above the best which earthly life offers. The mind then rests and there is a gap in its usual activities, a Void out of which these heavenly experiences come to life as they overcome our ordinary feelings.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28323 – 14.22.6.28

BN – Z – DK

The Overself takes over his identity not by obliterating it but by including it through its surrender.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28325 – 14.22.6.30

BN – Z – D

The glimpse may move so gently into awareness that the beginning is hardly noticed. Or it may move in with a rush that overwhelms him. With it, knowledge, understanding, meaning, nobility, and divinity fill the aura around him at the moment.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28334 – 14.22.6.39

BN – Z – D

The glimpse may come in the depth of meditation where expectancy places it. But it may also come at unexpected moments.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28340 – 14.22.6.45

BN – Z – D

The glimpses are not controllable. They come or go without consulting us.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28343 – 14.22.6.48

BN – Z – D

The glimpse may come only once or twice in a lifetime to one quester yet repeat itself twentyfold to another person.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28344 – 14.22.6.49

BN – Z – D

There are moments when all his acutest thought-movement is stilled and he finds himself bereft of power, forced into utter submission to the divine Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28349 – 14.22.6.54

BN – Z – DK

The glimpse shows up something of his higher identity. What is interesting also is that its advent is unpredictable, its form changeable: but it is always fascinating.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > How a glimpse comes in

#28351 – 14.22.6.56

BN – Z – DEK

The Glimpses are not completely uniform in their details. In each one there is different emphasis on a particular aspect, such as its Beauty, Power, Impersonality, or Emptiness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28355 – 14.22.6.60

BN – Z – D

The points of this experience are the difficulty of describing it precisely, the joy it yields and the peace it brings, the feeling of a finer self and the sense of a higher presence, the appraisal of its preciousness and the fading away of worldly desires.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28362 – 14.22.6.67

BN – Z – D

When the two are one, when ego and Overself no longer remain at a distance from one another, man experiences his first illumination. What will happen thereafter is wrapped in mystery.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28364 – 14.22.6.69

BSG_4 – Z – D

In this brief interval when he feels himself to be in the presence of the Overself, when goodwill, peace, and wisdom become living eternal realities rather than mere mocking words, the littleness vanishes from life and a sacred grandeur replaces it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28365 – 14.22.6.70

BN – Z – D

These splendid moments, so filled with flashes of beauty and goodness, so tremendous in meaning and perspective, are like peeps into Paradise.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28369 – 14.22.6.74

BN – Z – D

Glimpses vary much in their nature. Some are soft, mild and delicate, quiet and restrained; others are ecstatic, rapturous, and excited. All give some sort of uplift, exaltation, enlightenment, or revelation and also to varying degrees.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28374 – 14.22.6.79

BN – ZZ – DK1

PB: "I remember the first time I had this astonishing experience. I was fond of disappearing from London whenever the weather allowed and wandering alongside the river Thames in its more picturesque country parts. If the day was sunny I would stretch my feet out, lie down in the grass, pull out notebook and pen from my pocket—knowing that thoughts would eventually arise that would have for me an instructive or even revelatory nature, apart from those ordinary ones which were merely expressive. One day, while I was waiting for these thoughts to arise, I lost the feeling that I was there at all. I seemed to dissolve and vanish from that place, but not from consciousness. Something was there, a presence, certainly not me, but I was fully aware of it. It seemed to be something of the highest importance, the only thing that mattered. After a few minutes I came back, discovered myself in time and space again; but a great peace had touched me and a very benevolent feeling was still with me. I looked at the trees, the shrubs, the flowers, and the grass and felt a tremendous sympathy with them and then when I thought of other persons a tremendous benevolence towards them."

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28375 – 14.22.6.80

BN – ZZZ – DEK1

In this mysterious moment the two are one. He no longer abides with the mere images of reality. He is now in the authentic world of reality itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28376 – 14.22.6.81

BN – Z – DK1

There are three stages in each glimpse. The initial one brings a soft feeling of its gentle approach. The second carries the man to its peak of upliftment, enlightenment, and peace. The final one draws him down again into a fading glow which occupies the mind's background and later survives only in memory.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28377 – 14.22.6.82

BN – Z – DM1

It is a state of exquisite tenderness, of love welling up from an inner centre and radiating outward in all directions. If other human beings or animal creatures come within his contact at the time, they become recipients of this love without exception. For then no enemies are recognized, none are disliked, and it is not possible to regard anyone as repulsive.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28378 – 14.22.6.83

A250814 – ZZZ – DK1

With the glimpse a feeling overspreads his heart of benevolence towards all living creatures—not only human but also animal and not only animal but even plant. He would not, could not knowingly harm a single one. The Christians call this love, the Buddhists compassion, the Hindus oneness. My own term is goodwill, but all are right. These are different facets, as seen from different points.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28389 – 14.22.6.94

BN – Z – DEK

There are exquisite moments when all existence seems elevated to a higher plane, when one's individual being is absorbed in a harmony with all things.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28392 – 14.22.6.97

BN – Z – D

He will feel spontaneous peace that comes from he knows not where, intellectual conviction that the right path has been found, mysterious detachment that takes hold of him during worldly temptations and worldly tribulations alike.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28403 – 14.22.6.108

BN – Z – D

When you are in this wider consciousness you are at home. Outwardly you may be without a roof to shelter your head but still you will feel protected, secure, and provided for. Your feeling and your trust are not groundless. For the outward manifestation of this inward care will follow.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28404 – 14.22.6.109

BN – Z – DM*

You will comprehend that while the Overself thus enfolds you, you can never again feel lonely, never again find the sky turned black because some human love has been denied or been withdrawn from you.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28405 – 14.22.6.110

BN – Z – D

A feeling of lightness and freedom, of songlike well-being and perfect harmony, comes with this disidentification from the body.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28408 – 14.22.6.113

BN – Z – D

This is his first thrilling discovery of the Overself's existence, his first incontestable evidence of its power. No later experience can equal it in emotional feeling. It is one of the really momentous points of his life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28414 – 14.22.6.119

BN – ZZ – D

For a short time he loses himself in this beautiful consciousness and lets go of the continual routine which makes up his usual day. He gains a healing rest in nerve, mind, feeling, and even body. Such a glimpse comes of itself—"The wind bloweth where it listeth," declared Jesus.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28419 – 14.22.6.124

B_11 – ZZ – K

These glimpses are encounters with divinity. There is a quality about them which separates them from all the other contacts and encounters of life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28420 – 14.22.6.125

BN – Z – D

When he steps forth from the ego's timed life into the Overself's liberating timelessness, the feeling of confinement falls away like a heavy cloak. He enjoys an unimagined exhilaration.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28425 – 14.22.6.130

BN – ZZ – DK

This wonderful and exquisite feeling is really within himself, only he transfers it unconsciously to the scenes and persons outside himself and thus perceives goodness and beauty everywhere.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28427 – 14.22.6.132

BN – Z – D

If it begins quietly and unassumingly, it ends deeply—with the sensation of having entered briefly and memorably a higher world of being.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28428 – 14.22.6.133

BN – Z – D

If the intercourse of man and woman is the most intimate act in the lives of both, the conscious contact of a human being with the Overself is even more intimate still.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28429 – 14.22.6.134

BN – X – D

His consciousness is lifted up into another world of being; his little self is in communication with the Overself; his perception of truth is instantly translated into power to live that truth.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28430 – 14.22.6.135

BN – Z – D

With both the brief Glimpse and the lasting Fulfilment comes a strong feeling of release. This refers to release from all the various kinds of limitation and restriction which have hemmed and oppressed him heretofore.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28437 – 14.22.6.142

BN – Z – D

Like a prisoner emerging from a gloomy cell after many years or an invalid liberated from long confinement in a hospital bed, he will feel an overwhelming sense of relief as the glimpse deepens and all cares, all burdens, fade away.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28438 – 14.22.6.143

BN – Z – DEK

It is like the feeling of returning to a well-beloved home after long absence, a joy whose arisal is spontaneous and unavoidable.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28440 – 14.22.6.145

BN – Z – D

The base, the mean, the unworthy, and the low seem alien and far from him: the noble, the high, the true, and the ideal seem to become his own very nature. From this rare contact he draws an unspeakable peace, a divine upliftment.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28443 – 14.22.6.148

BN – Z – DK

In these enchanted moments, all life takes on the shadowlike quality of a dream.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28446 – 14.22.6.151

BN – X – D

The sudden Olympian elation which the glimpse gives, the unfamiliar feeling that it is like looking through a window on an entirely different and wholly glorious world of being, the inner knowing that this is reality—these things make it a benediction.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28448 – 14.22.6.153

BN – Z – D

The glimpse will affect each individual in a different way, although the feeling of stepping out of darkness into light will be common to all.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28458 – 14.22.6.163

BN – X – D

Mostly as a result of meditation, but sometimes during an unexpected glimpse, a mystical experience of an unusual kind may develop. He feels transparent to the Overself; its light passes into and through him. He then finds that his ordinary condition was as if a thick wall surrounded him, devoid of windows and topped by a thick roof, a condition of imprisonment in limitation and ordinariness. But now the walls turn to glass, their density is miraculously gone, he is not only open to the light streaming in but lets it pass on, irradiating the world around.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28461 – 14.22.6.166

BN – Z – D

He touches the Permanent, feels that his true self is part of eternity and this other self is a foolish thing he is glad to be rid of.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28466 – 14.22.6.171

BN – Z – D

There is something in man which does not belong to this world, something mysterious, holy, and serene. It is this that touches and holds him at certain unforgettable moments.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28471 – 14.22.6.176

BN – Z – D

The discovery of timelessness, of its reality and factuality, is both a thing to wonder at and a joyful experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28484 – 14.22.6.189

BN – Z – D

Its coming is an emotional, intuitive, non-physical, intellectual, and spiritual event. It happens, this experience of a transcendental Presence, here, in the place that Jesus mentioned—the Heart.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28490 – 14.22.6.195

B_11 – ZZ – K

The Glimpse comes as a benediction and as a grace. The heart should be grateful, immensely grateful for its visitation. It possesses a beauty which is not of this world, which gives joy to the heart.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28501 – 14.22.6.206

BN – X – D

The joy comes upon him out of the unknown, gently, mysteriously, and sunnily.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28506 – 14.22.6.211

BN – X – K

As this wonderful feeling steals over him, there is a clear and unmistakable sense that the Overself is displacing the ego. Hitherto he has obeyed the rule of the flesh and the brain and consequently has shared their pitiful limitations. Now he becomes acutely aware that a new sovereign is taking his place on the throne.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28507 – 14.22.6.212

BN – Z – D

As he approaches nearer to awareness of the Overself, he approaches nearer to a cloistral inward stillness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28508 – 14.22.6.213

BN – Z – D

There is a unique bliss in this new-found freedom of the second self, a sublime peace in this dissolution of old restraints.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28513 – 14.22.6.218

BN – Z – D

The ego slides from off his shoulders like a heavy overcoat and he feels delightfully free.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28517 – 14.22.6.222

BN – Z – D

It is the glorious moment when Adam re-enters Eden, even though he is only a visiting guest and not a permanent dweller therein.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28521 – 14.22.6.226

BN – X – D

The Glimpse operates to cast an actual spell over him. He is enchanted not merely poetically but literally.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28522 – 14.22.6.227

BN – Z – K

During these wonderful glimpses ordinary existence seems suspended.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28529 – 14.22.6.234

BN – X – D

He finds a new joy deep within himself, a new and higher meaning deep within life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28530 – 14.22.6.235

BN – Z – DM

The encounter with the Overself may be hushed and gentle or thrilling and dramatic. But it will certainly be absorbing.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28532 – 14.22.6.237

BN – X – D

How inadequate are constructed sentences to tell anyone the total wonder of a glimpse, of the I's departure and the Overself's arrival!

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28535 – 14.22.6.240

BN – ZZ – D

The glimpse carries either a quiet intellectual rapture with it or a seething emotional one.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28543 – 14.22.6.248

BN – Z – K

In such a benignant mood, it is easy to forgive one's enemies their vile conduct or to look at faithless friends in a kindlier light.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28544 – 14.22.6.249

B_14 – ZZZ – K

When we turn inwards, we turn in the direction of complete composure.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28546 – 14.22.6.251

BN – Z – K

'This' is his real being. He sought for it, prayed to it, and communed with it in the past as if it were something other than, and apart from, himself. Now he knows that it was himself, that there is no need for 'him' to do any of these things. All he needs is to recognize what he is and to realize it at every moment.

Inspiration and the Overself > Experiencing a Glimpse > Characteristics of glimpses

#28559 – 14.22.6.264

BN – Z – D